Dallas Basketball

LOOK: Mavs Star Luka Doncic Ramps Up in Practice; Available For Game 3?

It appears that Luka Doncic could be ready to make his series debut vs. the Jazz.

Dalton Trigg

There is a lot of optimism surrounding the Dallas Mavericks right now. Not only were they able to tie their first-round playoff series with the Utah Jazz at 1-1 on Monday night behind Jalen Brunson’s 41-point performance, but now it’s looking like Luka Doncic might be ready to make his series debut as well.

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Jalen Brunson, Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

On Wednesday, a video surfaced of Doncic getting up a handful of 3-point shots after practice. Doncic appeared to be moving as well as we’ve seen so far since he strained his left calf on April 10 in the Mavs’ regular-season finale vs. the San Antonio Spurs.

Although Doncic looks good physically right now, there’s still no official word on his availability for Thursday night’s Game 3 in Salt Lake City. However, if Doncic gets the thumbs up from Casey Smith and the Mavs’ training staff, he’ll be out there ready to go.

“If there’s no risk of (further) injury,” said Doncic after practice, “I’ll be out there.”

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Tom Pennington/Getty Images
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Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Whether Doncic is able to play or not, though, the Mavs have proven that they can take care of business either way when focused and hitting their open shots. Dallas won Game 2, and they nearly won Game 1 as well despite shooting under 40 percent from the field and 30 percent from deep.

Will Dallas take back home court? The Mavs have only won in Utah once since April 2016, and that was on Aug. 10, 2020 when Tim Hardaway Jr. led with 27 points with Doncic out. Let’s see if they can keep surprising people.

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Dalton Trigg
DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.

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